


In Case You Didn't Know

by CobaltStargazer



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Clint Barton Is Secretly A Big Mushball, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Letters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 00:20:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11680113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltStargazer/pseuds/CobaltStargazer
Summary: Wanda loves a man who doesn't talk much, but when he does let her know how he feels, it's everything.





	In Case You Didn't Know

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the song of the same name by Brett Young, which everyone should listen to at least once.

There was a letter on the kitchen table.

Wanda was used to finding notes from Clint by now. He was an early riser and would usually be up and around before she got out of bed, and he would leave a note where she could find it saying when he'd be back. Sometimes - not often - he would put a smiley face on it, and once he'd drawn a _very_ small heart on the note and colored it in with blue ink. That one she'd kept because it was so unusual. But he'd never left her an entire letter before. She fixed a cup of the coffee she'd acquired a taste for and pulled a chair away from the table to settle in and read.

Wanda

Typical Barton, she thought, looking at the archer's deliberate handwriting. She was used to his silences by now, even found it endearing that he didn't talk much. If he could even be taciturn in a written message, it didn't surprise her. 

I just wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you today. You were still asleep when I left, and I didn't want to wake you up, so I left you this.

Wanda looked up from the sheet of paper, halfway expecting to see him standing in the doorway watching her. He did that sometimes, snuck up on her and then just watched her in silence until she noticed him. Clint was a presence, his self-assurance filling in the spaces where he lacked for conversation. But she was still alone in the small house they'd shared since returning from what she'd come to think of as exile, so she took another drink of the almost too hot coffee and returned to the distinctive script written in black ink. 

It took me a while to piece together how I feel. I see better from a distance; not just the lay of the land, but relationships. I thought it was guilt at first, and maybe it was, a little bit. If I had gotten to thank your brother, not felt that life debt towards him, it might have been easier to understand when I started spending so much time with you. I thought it was protectiveness, and it could have been that too, the urge to keep you from any more harm. I was angry at first, I admit it. But so were you, and once I understood why, I wanted to figure the rest of it out too. One piece is never the whole puzzle.

I remember the first time you smiled at me. A real smile, because I'd done something that pleased you and made you happy. I can't even remember what that was now, that first thing, but I can see that smile you gave me even now. It was a million sunrises and a million sunsets all at once, and I knew that the worst of it was over for you. And that I was in more trouble outside of a near death experience as I could get.

She laughed out loud at that, picturing the usually stoic archer's expression as the new information sank in, and she felt a rush of affection even in his absence. No one could predict what the future would bring, and even as little as five years ago she would not have imagined this. Him.

I believe in action, not words. It isn't what you say, it's what you do. But I want you to keep this letter, because if I never say any of these things where you can hear them, I don't want you to doubt what I'm writing down here. Words are easy. What's difficult is making them mean something, and I figure you've heard enough glib promises about how much people care about you to last the next hundred years.

And there was the lump in her throat, and Wanda's chin quivered before she stilled it. It was that solidity, that inner peace, that initially drew her to him. The seeds of trust had been planted when he bolstered her morale in Sokovia, and they'd both worked to nurture them through the tumult that followed. He'd picked her up and dusted her off, lent her his strength while she carved out a new path for herself. It was his patience and the way he kissed her and his hot breath on her neck when he slipped into bed with her, everything, all of it. 

The world is uncertain. And our lives are different than everyone else's. But I don't want you to ever doubt that I carry that time you genuinely smiled at me in my heart. In case you didn't know I'm crazy about you.

"You found it."

Wanda turned in her seat, wiped absently at her left cheek as Clint let the screen door slap quietly shut. He looked her over, a rueful smile touching his mouth, then crouched down next to her chair. His palm flattened against the small of her back, and she leaned into the touch.

"I didn't mean to make you cry."

"It is a good cry. Not all tears are from pain."

The archer's mouth brushed against the shell of Wanda's ear, and she welcomed the goosebumps. Forging a new life had been difficult, _beyond_ difficult, but the effort had been dully worth it. Because she was crazy about him too.

**Author's Note:**

> I will be returning to update Cabin in the Woods after this, but I wanted to get this off my plate first.


End file.
